Two British anti-hate speech campaigners sanctioned by US state department – UK politics live

Keir Starmer has called on Britons to show kindness to struggling friends or family this Christmas, saying being in touch with those in need can make a big difference, Jessica Elgot reports.

Here is Starmer’s video message.

In her message, Kemi Badenoch talks about her family, and how she has had a “wonderful year” as leader of the opposition.

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, is a bit more political in his message, citing the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square, an annual gift to the UK from Norway for its support during the second world war, as a statement about friendship, and freedom.

We have not seen a Christmas message yet from Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader.

And Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, is planning to release a video Christmas message at 3pm on Christmas Day – at the same time as the king’s Christmas message on TV.

Polanski has had remarkable success since he became leader in September, but lining up against the king might be touch hubristic. But he wants to deliver a message going beyond platitudes. He filmed it in Calais, where he witnessed the French police destroying the tents used by asylum seekers, and, according to extracts released in advance, he will criticise the “militarisation and securitisation” put in place to stop small boats. Instead, he will call for a new, more compassionate approach to asylum seekers. He will say:

This has to stop - the constant political rhetoric and demonisation of people who are just trying to survive in unimaginable living conditions.

I don’t believe we’re the country who the media paint us to be. I don’t believe that we’re cruel and heartless. And I don’t believe that if people saw what I’ve seen in recent days, they would turn away …

We should be diverting that money to a humanitarian and compassionate response. The rhetoric we hear about ‘stopping the boats’ and ‘smashing the gangs’ - none of this is working.

And this is what Sarah Rogers, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy at the US state department, said on her social media thread last night about why Clare Melford is being sanctioned.

WE’VE SANCTIONED: Clare Melford. She leads Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a UK-based organization that monitors websites for “hate speech” and “disinformation”. If you question Canadian blood libels about residential schools, you’re engaging in “hate speech” according to Melford and GDI. This NGO used @StateDept taxpayer money to exhort censorship and blacklisting of American speech and press. They also joined the deleterious EU Code of Practice on Disinformation.

Rogers’ tweet also includes this picture of an extract from a GDI report published in September 2025 on hate speech and bigotry in Canada.

Here is the full passage.

The anti-Indigenous hate speech section demonstrates how deeply rooted colonial tropes have been refashioned to serve contemporary hate speech goals. These narratives frame Indigenous peoples as corrupt, undeserving of treaty rights, or actively damaging to Canadian prosperity, particularly in contexts related to land use, environmental resistance, or constitutional recognition. Digital denialism around residential schools and abuses against native communities reveals coordinated efforts to delegitimise truth and reconciliation, undermining national commitments to redress historic injustice. These findings are vital for Canada’s ongoing reconciliation efforts, including understanding how settler-state narratives are weaponised by adversarial actors in post-colonial democracies.

The analysis of misogynistic and anti-2SLGBTQIA+ narratives reveals that gendered hate speech is a critical entry point into broader extremist movements online. Women with a public profile, especially women of colour, are disproportionately targeted by harassment, hate speech, and threats of violence. Meanwhile, disinformation targeting queer and trans individuals portrays them as morally corrupt or ideologically dangerous, frequently accusing them of “grooming” or social destabilisation. These narratives are central to the rhetorical arsenal of far-right movements and require urgent attention in online safety, education, and digital governance efforts.

The anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant narratives identified in this report draw on a coherent Islamophobic framework that depicts Muslims as culturally incompatible, socially regressive, or strategically infiltrating Western institutions. These narratives often surface in response to refugee policies, equity programs, or the public visibility of Muslim figures in Canadian life. Framed as defenders of Western values, their promoters instrumentalise gender-based language and demographic fear to advance exclusionary policies. These sections highlight how Islamophobia operates not only as individual bias, but as a tool of political mobilisation and disinformation strategy.

There is more on what is meant by residential school denialism in this article for The Conversation.

This is what Sarah Rogers, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy at the US state department, said on her social media thread last night about why Imran Ahmed is being sanctioned.

WE’VE SANCTIONED: Imran Ahmed, key collaborator with the Biden Administration’s effort to weaponize the government against U.S. citizens. Ahmed’s group, Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), created the infamous “disinformation dozen” report, which called for platforms to deplatform twelve American “anti-vaxxers”, including now-HHS Secretary @SecKennedy. Leaked documents from CCDH show the organization listed “kill Musk’s Twitter” and “trigger EU and UK regulatory action” as priorities. The organization supports the UK’s Online Safety Act and EU’s Digital Services Act to expand censorship in Europe and around the world.

Obviously, among other organisations supporting the UK’s Online Safety Act is – the UK government!

There is more on X trying to close down the CCDH here.

Good morning. Christmas is the time of peace on earth and goodwill towards all men. But there is not much sign of that in US/UK relations this morning, where the Trump administration has just sanctioned two Britons, among others, for supposedly trying to suppress free speech in the US, and that has led to the Lib Dem leader Ed Davey engaging in a Twitter spat with a senior figure in the US state department.

Let’s start with the sanctions. Yesterday Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, issued this statement saying:

The State Department is taking decisive action against five individuals who have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose. These radical activists and weaponized NGOs have advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states—in each case targeting American speakers and American companies. As such, I have determined that their entry, presence, or activities in the United States have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.

The state department has sanctioned five Europeans.

The list includes two Britons: Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, and Clare Melford, who runs the Global Disinformation Index. Ahmed used to work for the Labour party and he is close to Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff. According to Politico’s London Playbook, Ahmed is based in Washington, where he has an American wife and child, and he now faces deportation. Politico also says Melford faces having her US visa revoked.

Last night Sarah Rogers, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy at the state department, posted a thread on X defending the decision. She said the Trump administration was targeting the “censorship-NGO ecosystem”.

Today, the United States issued SANCTIONS reinforcing the “red line” I invoked on @GBNEWS. Namely: extraterritorial censorship of Americans.

Today’s sanctions target the censorship-NGO ecosystem.

These sanctions are visa-related. We aren’t invoking severe Magnitsky-style financial measures, but our message is clear: if you spend your career fomenting censorship of American speech, you’re unwelcome on American soil.

She also took a swipe at the Liberal Democrats.

None of those sanctioned is a current UK or EU official—however, we know that foreign government officials are actively targeting the United States. This week, the UK’s Liberal Democrats claimed President Trump’s National Security Strategy amounts to “foreign interference” by a “hostile foreign state” because it correctly identifies mass migration and decaying national sovereignty as existential European security concerns.

In fact, Davey did not say the national security strategy amounts to foreign interference in British politics because it is critical of mass migration. He said that because the document explicitly says US policy for Europe should prioritise, among other things, “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations”.

In a direct response to Rogers on X last night, Davey made this point himself.

Donald Trump has made it his explicit policy to ‘cultivate resistance’ in the UK and elsewhere.

So yes, I think that counts as foreign interference.

I will be blogging until about 2pm. If there is time, I may even get round to covering something festive.